Windows 8 hands-on review

SOFTWARE REDEVELOPER Microsoft has released the final build of Windows 8 to Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and TechNet subscribers to download and install. The INQUIRER has taken a look at the release to manufacturing (RTM) version of Windows 8 to see what's new about it.For those who might wonder what has changed in Microsoft's shipping code for Windows 8, the short answer is not much, apart from a few cosmetic changes, some background art alternatives and lock screen designs to let users customise how the starting display looks on their PC.

As most readers will now be aware, the user interface is designed primarily for touchscreen control on a tablet, not just when launching applications by touching their live tile, but also by using gestures where users might have used the mouse previously, such as swiping in from the right edge of the screen to bring up a menu of options.

Existing Windows applications are relegated to the desktop, a separate environment accessed via a tile on the Start menu, where they retain the traditional look and feel. However, the Aero Glass effect is now gone.

We're not yet convinced that the new user interface will prove to be a hit with users rather than hated, but a great deal hangs on the success, or lack of it, of the new system.

The Windows 8 RTM code has supposedly been cleaned up by Microsoft to improve performance, but we did not notice any perceptible difference between this version and the pre-release builds.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, as the gesture-based user interface really does feel "fast and fluid", to quote Microsoft's own phrase.One thing that did concern us is that IE 10 crashed several times while browsing during our hands-on tests, which does not bode well for the reliability of Windows 8, considering we were using a fresh install of the release version.

While the Windows 8 RTM does not contain many surprises from the pre-release versions, the operating system as a whole introduces a great many new features compared with earlier editions of Windows such as Windows 7. We'll be looking over these in greater depth in a full review of Windows 8 in the near future. µ